Jesús Torres was born in Saragossa on 15 July 1965 of Andalusian descent, and lives in Madrid since he was ten years old. Born into a family with a long musical tradition, he started learning the violin with his uncle José Torres and later entered the Madrid Royal Conservatory where he received his academic background. He studied composition privately with Francisco Guerrero from 1986 to 1988. His catalogue is around one hundred twenty compositions until now and includes twenty orchestral works and numerous works of chamber music for the most varied types of ensembles. A special interest of his is setting texts to music, above all the poetry of Vicente Aleixandre, alongside that of other literary figures including Saint John of the Cross, Jorge Manrique, Saint Teresa of Ávila, Luis de Góngora, Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo, Rubén Darío, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca, Miguel Hernández, Juan Eduardo Cirlot, Leopoldo Panero and. His pieces have been performed in numerous countries at festivals and in concert series, including at the Biennale di Venezia, Musica 99 Strasbourg, Musikfestspiele Saar, Ars Musica Brussels, Prèsences 2000 of Radio France, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Khumo Festival, the ISCM Festival in Copenhagen and Bucharest, Festival de Alicante, the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, PRIX Italia, Música de Hoy, Time of Music of Vitassari, Festival Spaziomusica in Cagliari, the Mostly Modern Series in Dublin, the Royal Academy in London, Gaudeamus Music Week, Festival Manca in Nice, Ibermúsica, Prague Premieres 2008, etc. He has received commissions from both private and public institutions including: INAEM, the Gaudeamus Foundation, the Kaleidoscope Programme, the Comunidad of Madrid, the Colegio de España in Paris, The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, the Aula de Música in Alcalá de Henares, the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, Fundación Canal, the "Cadaqués Orchestra" Conducting Competition, the Spanish National Orchestra, the Nacional Youth Orchestra of Spain, Institut Valencià de la Música, the Basque Government Department of Culture, Cameralia 2007, O.R.C.A.M., the Teatro de la Zarzuela, FestClásica, etc. He has also received commissions from numerous performers. He has been the recipient of various awards, including that of the SGAE, of Gaudeamus, the Valentino Bucchi Award, the Reina Sofía Award, The Millennium Chamber Players and the National Music Award 2012. He spent the 1998-99 season as composer in residence of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain. Since 2002, all of his compositions have been published by Tritó Edicions in Barcelona. His music is found in numerous record labels such as Naxos, Kairos, Verso, OCNE, Tritó or IBS Classical.
